


Same Old May

by tessdebelle



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, LMD May - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-10
Updated: 2017-02-10
Packaged: 2018-09-23 06:15:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9644024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tessdebelle/pseuds/tessdebelle
Summary: He bolted towards her in a panic, sure there was another Aida or another dead body and found her collapsed on the floor, shaking, looking at the (hopefully) comatose form of… Herself.Pre-4x12, Melinda May finding Melinda May





	

All the Aidas were gone, finally, drives wiped clean, and Radcliffe was being sent to a prison - he was too intelligent to not use as an asset, but by that point he had gone near crazy from the book’s influence.

Phil had taken Melinda with him to Radcliffe’s home, to sweep it and be sure there was nothing left to hurt anyone. They were finally together, after nearly thirty years of being partners strictly in the sense that they worked together to being partners in life. It was tentative because neither of them wanted to rush into things, since their past relationships of the last twenty years had all ended in death or disaster, but it was amazing.

Melinda kept saying something felt off about her, and he’d hoped to reassure her. He wouldn’t lie - something did feel off, but he hoped it was the change in the two of them and moving to a different type of relationship that caused it. 

They split up to cover more of the area, her going to check the lab and Aida’s chamber and him looking at Radcliffe’s kitchen and bedroom. He was just going through Radcliffe’s closet for any remaining information or weapons when he heard a scream - Melinda’s.

He bolted towards her in a panic, sure there was another Aida or another dead body and found her collapsed on the floor, shaking, looking at the (hopefully) comatose form of… Herself.

His eyes darted back and forth between the Melinda May he’d worked with for the last few weeks, the Melinda May who’d shared his bed and opened that bottle of Haig with, and the woman who laid on a mat, tubes in her arms and head to monitor her brain activity - alive, then - her vitals, and to feed her nutrients.

“What is going on?” She whispered, the May who now shook on the floor. He approached the one on the mat, who seemed to be dosed with GHB and Chloroform. 

“I don’t know.” He said. Two tablets sat, side by side. One of them was hooked up to the machine for the unconscious May, labeled _May - Human,_ the other a wireless model resembling the keypad for Aida’s controls labeled _May - Life Model Decoy_. It showed vitals and notes that he read over again and again, trying to make sense of them.

 _Name: Maybot 01_  
First Activated: December 6th, 2016  
Status: On  
Hours Online: 1836.5  
Purpose: Maybot 01 was designed by Doctor Holden Radcliffe and Assistant Aida (LMD) in order to monitor S.H.I.E.L.D. internally. Maybot was designed with all the memories of the original Melinda Qiaolian May as well as sympathetic emotional responses, synthetic bloodtype, and exact bodily replica. This Life Model Decoy is not self-aware, and for all intents and purposes believes herself to be the real Agent May.

His hand shook as he pressed _Camera_ , and was directed to a feed of his back - exactly what the conscious Melinda May was seeing. 

“You need to see this.” He rasped. She stood up behind him and crossed to the room, staring at the matching form laid out unconscious, and saw exactly what he was seeing. 

“That… That can’t be real.” She said. He could hear her breathing grow heavier as if she was about to have an anxiety attack, one he couldn’t blame her for under the circumstances.

“How else do you explain how they knew where the Darkhold was being hidden? Or how you were about to attack her and then you couldn’t remember anything? She was able to turn you off.” He said. 

“T-try it.” She said. “Have me do something.” 

He looked over the buttons. He hit _Input Commands_ , where a prompt came up. He input _/jump_ into the command frame and not even a second later, she had jumped in the air, and he could hear the sob bubbling up from her throat even as she did it.

_/end jump_

She stared at him. “Phil. You have to shut me down.” She said. He looked at her with shock and she stepped closer. “I’m not really May. I knew something was wrong with me and this must be it.” She said biting down hard on her lip. 

“But -”

“But nothing.” She said. “If I have the feelings that the real May does then she loves you just as much as I do. I can’t live someone else’s life. I’m a robot and I’m Aida and Radcliffe’s tech and you need to shut me down and wake her up.” She said. 

He tried to speak and respond but he knew she was right. To him it wasn’t choosing one May over the other - it was loving Melinda May and not wanting to go back to just being someone she worked with, of fearing the May that loved him was really a design of theirs to keep him from finding out. 

He nodded, fighting back tears, and pulled her close, kissing her forehead - her skin felt so real - and buried his face in her neck - she even _smelled_ like May - and hit _Permanent Shutdown_. 

He quickly felt the body in his arms grow cold, and saw the eyes had gone dim. She was gone and yet she was right there with him, unconscious. 

Phil came close, touching the hand of the woman he had thought had been by his side for almost three months, and started turning off the release of drugs into her system, letting her gradually wake up. 

It took only minutes for her eyes to begin flickering open, and suddenly she was there beside him, looking exactly the same, and gave him that small smile he knew and loved so much. “Phil?” She asked softly. 

“Hey.” He rasped, at once missing the woman he had thought he knew and glad to see her.

She looked around, confused. “Why do I keep waking up at Radcliffe’s strapped down to things?” She asked groggily.

He laughed. “Same old May.” He said feeling his eyes water as he traced her jaw with his thumb.


End file.
